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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28801617">A Clan of Three (or how Rey Djarin came to be)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryreys/pseuds/starryreys'>starryreys</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Din Djarin is the dad Rey deserves!!, Found Family, Gen, The Mandalorian (TV) Season 2, he sees an abandoned child and goes is anyone gonna adopt that? then doesn’t wait for an answer, in which din just flies around the galaxy accidentally adopting every force sensitive child he finds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:35:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,438</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28801617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryreys/pseuds/starryreys</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>His gaze moves down to Grogu at his side, whose eyes are wide and bright as he looks up at Din. He can’t help but see those same eyes in Rey as he thinks about Grogu, alone and lost for thirty years before Din came along. He wonders how long Rey will be alone for. Maybe it’s not just Grogu’s eyes he sees in the girl, there’s something kindred about her. Some grit and spine in her spirit he recognizes in himself. </p><p>The three of them are survivors of some sort. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin &amp; Grogu | Baby Yoda, Din Djarin &amp; Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin &amp; Rey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>422</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>thank you to @notkatniss on tumblr who made this (https://notkatniss.tumblr.com/post/639419769692487680/pa-intercom-voice-din-djarin-there-is-going-to) incredible rey djarin art which inspired this fic, please click on the link and look at the art if you haven’t seen it I cry every time</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jakku is probably one of the worst places Din can stop for ship parts.</p><p>Niima Outpost is notorious for its bad prices and black market trading, and on top of that he’s going to be dusting sand out of his beskar for weeks. But with a damaged motivator and a hyperdrive that functions half the time at best, he’d need a kind of luck he doesn’t have for the Crest to make it to the next spaceport in one piece.</p><p>He steps off the ship and waves over the first trader he sees. The price for the motivator isn’t worth it-it’s not even worth half of it, but he’s not interested in straying too far from the ship, not with the group of scavengers he can see eyeing him from the corner of the outpost. It would have been an easy fight back in the day, it might have even been a fun one. But now it’s harder to tell who’s working for the Empire and who’s just a regular mercenary. He doesn’t want to put the kid in any more danger than necessary.  </p><p>As he pockets the motivator, the trader giving him a guileful smile before stalking off, he hears a barely perceptible flutter of footsteps against metal behind him. He turns instinctively, his blaster already in the air, only to find a little girl slipping quietly off the Crest’s boarding ramp. He lowers his weapon. “Hey kid,” he calls out to her, as she jumps off the ramp and into the sand. “What are you doing on my ship?”</p><p>She freezes and her hands move furtively into her pockets. “Nothing,” she says, her eyes wide and her voice a little too innocent. “I was just looking.”</p><p>Din takes a second to look at the girl, her tunic sandy and worn like it’s the only clothing she owns, her brown hair pulled back practically into three buns, and a battered wooden staff strapped over her shoulder. He sighs and sets his blaster back in the holster. “Where are your parents?”</p><p>“They’ll be back soon.”</p><p>“I didn’t ask when they’ll be back, I asked where they are.”</p><p>She scrunches up her nose at him. “That’s none of your business and if you keep asking me questions I’ll hit you with this,” she yells, pulling the staff off her shoulder and pointing it at him. She scurries off before Din can reply.</p><p>Fair enough. </p><p>He adjusts Grogu’s carrying bag and the kid looks up at him with questioning eyes. “Think she took anything important?” Din asks him. Grogu’s ears perk up in what Din chooses to interpret as a shrug. </p><p>He climbs aboard the Razor Crest and does a quick inventory in his head. It doesn’t look like anything was taken from the main hold. He reaches over and presses the switch to open his weapons locker. There’s not a blaster out of place.</p><p>Maybe the girl was telling the truth after all. </p><p>He moves his hand to close the locker and notices a screw missing on the metal doors. That’s not out of the ordinary, the Crest is always a few screws and wires away from falling apart. But as his eyes move along the walls of the ship, he notices other tiny missing pieces. Small scraps of metal from the floor, a broken power modulator that Din had thrown aside while doing ship repairs, an old tracking fob. </p><p>He glances back to the weapons, back to the expensive weapons, before climbing up into the cockpit. The whole engine is intact too, not a wire out of place. He looks around mystified, why would the kid take useless scraps and broken parts, but leave everything else untouched?</p><p>She probably didn’t know what she was doing, he decides. She’s young after all, she couldn’t be much older than he was when he was adopted into the tribe. He hopes she has someone to teach her how to be more stealthy and resourceful the next time she ransacks a ship.</p><p>Wait no, he hopes she doesn’t actually make a habit of stealing from other people’s ships. </p><p>He shakes his head and pulls Grogu out of the carrying bag, setting him down in the passenger seat. “Kids are strange, aren’t they pal,” he murmurs, slinging the bag off him and settling down in his own chair. Grogu coos at him in response. </p><p>He shakes sand out of his vambrace as he starts up the ship. He can’t wait to be off this planet, he’ll install the motivator in the air if he has to. He reaches a hand up to switch on the engines when he realizes something important is missing after all. The little metal ball on the control panel is gone, unscrewed from the handle. Din slowly turns around to look at Grogu who, as expected, is looking at the missing ball with sullen eyes and his mouth turned down in the corners, an expression that’s dangerously close to a pout. His distressed gaze moves from the control panel up to Din, and he lets out a very quiet, very pleading cry. </p><p>Din sighs.</p><p> </p><p>He finds the girl where he left her back at Niima Outpost. She’s sitting on the ground dusting off various pieces of junk with a frayed cloth and fiddling with the metal parts. She doesn’t look up at him as he approaches.</p><p>“Hey,” he says, bending down in front of her, “look kid, you can keep the scrap metal. I just need the ball from the control panel.” </p><p>“Your ship will fly without it,” she replies lightly, and continues to polish the pieces in front of her.</p><p>He’s surprised she’s not even trying to deny stealing it. Bold Kid. </p><p>“I don’t need it to fly, but it’s my kid’s favorite toy.” </p><p>She does look up at him then, her eyes moving from his helmet down to the child, half concealed in the bag on Din’s side. Grogu makes a little noise of want and stretches his hand out towards the metal pieces on the ground. She stares at him, her lips turned down.  </p><p>“Okay,” she says finally, plucking the ball from a little woven sack in her pocket and dropping it into Din’s hand.</p><p>“Thanks,” he says, not sure why he’s thanking her for something she stole from him. He hands the ball to Grogu who takes it with a gleeful coo and stretches out his other arm towards the girl.</p><p>She recoils at the gesture and stumbles backwards onto her heels. Din’s about to tell his kid to keep his hands to himself when the girl suddenly leans forward, stretching out her own hand to give Grogu’s a little shake. “He’s funny looking,” she says with delight, “but I like him. People always look at me and think they know who I am. It must be hard for you little one, with those big ears. But it must be nice for you,” she looks up at Din, her face genuine in a way that only a child’s can be, “with that big helmet hiding your face. Or maybe not. Maybe people think you’re scary with all that armor. But I think sometimes the people who are hardest on the outside are the softest on the inside.”</p><p>Din has no idea what to say to that.</p><p>“I’m Rey,” she goes on, dropping her hands to her knees, but continuing to stare at Grogu. “What’s your name?”</p><p>“His name is Grogu.”</p><p>“I like you Grogu,” she declares, and then sits back down to continue dusting off her loot without another word. </p><p>Din slowly stands up and stares at the girl for a minute, completely bewildered, before turning around to head back to his ship. He stops after a moment, his feet sinking into the sand as he stands still. He should keep going, it’s none of his business, it’s really none of his-</p><p>“What are you doing with that metal anyway?” he asks, turning back around to face the girl. </p><p>“Fixing it. Your ship is old and Plutt gives more portions for newer materials.” </p><p>“You’re scavenging in exchange for food?”</p><p>Her hands freeze over the metal for a second before she starts scrubbing again, more forcefully this time. “So what?” she asks, her voice defensive.</p><p>“You’re in the service of Unkar Plutt.” It’s the kindest way he can phrase it. Slavery, it existed before the Empire, and despite the New Republic’s halfhearted efforts, it hasn’t disappeared now.  </p><p>She drops the scraps into the sand as her hands ball into fists. “I work for myself and I work <em> by choice</em>,” she says, looking up at him with what he knows is all the hostility she can muster. </p><p>He holds his hands up in surrender, “I understand. And your family?” </p><p>“They’re coming back.”</p><p>“When did they leave?”</p><p>She makes a face and Din somehow knows the answer isn’t ‘yesterday’. He can’t help but feel sorry for the kid. Out of all the planets for a child to be stranded on, Jakku is probably one of the bleakest. He pulls the hyperdrive motivator out of his pocket and stares at it for a minute, wondering if the Crest will make it to the Mos Eisley spaceport before falling apart. At least Motto will give him a fair price for the repairs. </p><p>Din bends down in front of the girl, holding the motivator out to her. “Take this.” </p><p>Her eyes grow wide with surprise as she looks at the part in his hand. After a moment, she shakes her head and goes back to fiddling with the metal scraps in her lap. “I don’t need your help.” Her words are self-assured in a way that can’t be feigned, only earned.</p><p>“I know you don’t.”</p><p>Her expression softens fractionally and she looks at the broken parts in front of her, something wry on her face that Din thinks looks much older than a kid should look. After a minute, she slowly reaches her hand out and takes the motivator from him.</p><p>“Thank you.”  </p><p>“Take care of yourself kid.”</p><p>He forces himself to turn away, and begins the walk back to the Razor Crest. Grogu makes an unhappy noise as he does, his hands outstretched behind Din toward where the girl is still sitting.</p><p>“Jakku isn’t a good place to make friends, buddy,” Din murmurs to him, and he thinks maybe he’s trying to convince himself of that too.</p><p>He doesn’t leave right away, just sits on the edge of the boarding ramp, without really knowing why, watching as the girl-Rey-lines up at Plutt’s stand to receive her portions. </p><p>She passes Plutt the fixed up broken parts from Din’s ship, before carefully placing the hyperdrive motivator on the counter. Plutt stares from the motivator to Rey with a dumbfounded expression before shrugging and shoving a pile of rations at her. She scoops them up in her arms with a grin on her face as the other scavengers look on grudgingly. </p><p>She sets off, a happy bounce in her step, but stops after a few feet as a scrawny and bedraggled tooka crosses her path, collapsing under one of the canopies surrounding the outpost. He watches her bend down in front of the tooka and carefully open one of the ration packs, tossing the veg-meat inside to the creature. The tooka takes it in it’s mouth and runs off.</p><p>She stops again when she sees a very old, very frail looking woman scavenger sitting at one of the outpost tables, barely any salvage in her hands to show for a whole day’s work. He watches Rey put half her ration packs on the table and pat the woman lightly on the back.</p><p>When she finally does head off, she has the same amount of portions in her arms that she would have earned with her own scrap metal. Moreso than Din thought actually, in the end she had fixed up the broken parts from his ship better than even he was capable of.</p><p>He thought the little thief just didn’t know what she was doing but she’s clearly capable and knowledgeable about starships. Yet some of the working parts from his ship that she left untouched could have bought her a year’s worth of portions. </p><p>
  <em> “Your ship will fly without it.” </em>
</p><p>She didn’t want to take anything he needed.</p><p>Din never expects or asks those fighting to survive to have compassion or decency. He knows what it’s like to struggle to make it to the next day alive. And he knows that empathy is a trait that is often a privilege of those who don’t have to fight each day just for the right to live. </p><p>Some might credit Rey’s compassion to the naivety and ignorance of a child.</p><p>Din knows better.</p><p>His gaze moves down to Grogu at his side, whose eyes are wide and bright as he looks up at Din. He can’t help but see those same eyes in Rey as he thinks about Grogu, alone and lost for thirty years before Din came along. He wonders how long Rey will be alone for. Maybe it’s not just Grogu’s eyes he sees in the girl, there’s something kindred about her. Some grit and spine in her spirit he recognizes in himself. </p><p>The three of them are survivors of some sort. </p><p>He’s not sure what he can even do, what help he can offer to the girl. He doesn’t have the space or the resources. And his life is no life for a little kid. He looks back down to Grogu and it almost feels like the look he’s giving Din is reproachful. “I know,” Din says quietly to him, “didn’t stop me before.”</p><p>Rey’s current life is no life for a kid anyway.</p><p>But he can’t help her. He can’t help every lonely child in the Galaxy that he finds. He knows as well as anyone that sometimes bad things just happen, and you can’t save everyone who needs saving. He gets to his feet and starts walking up the ramp, but finds he can’t make it the last few steps into the ship. He just stands there, torn between running back to the outpost, and flying off and leaving the whole planet behind him.</p><p>In the end, he thinks of a little boy sitting alone and afraid under a hatch, his parents dead and gone. And a Mandalorian who reached an arm out to him, and gave him a second chance.</p><p> </p><p>He finds Unkar Plutt back at the Concession Stand, sorting the scavenged ship parts into piles. He steps up to the counter and pushes the parts aside. “Tell me about the girl-Rey,” he says, as Plutt gives him an affronted look, picking up the parts he knocked over. </p><p>“She’s not for sale.” </p><p>“I wasn’t asking,” he grits his teeth and forces himself to keep his tone civil, though there’s an unexpected ire inside him at Plutt’s words. “She said she works for you by choice.”</p><p>Plutt laughs, the flaps under his chin jostling up and down, “The choice to eat or to die of starvation!”</p><p>Din leans in, and makes his voice as dangerously quiet as he’s capable of, “Where are her parents?”</p><p>“Look I don’t ask questions.” He sees Plutt eye a blaster hanging on the wall behind him, sees him calculating the feeble odds that he can reach it before Din dispatches him, “The people dropped the girl off and gave me a handsome sum of credits for letting her live here and not telling anyone about it.”</p><p>“Did they say if they were coming back?”</p><p>The fear in Plutt’s eyes melts away as he roars with laughter. “Is that what she told you? The kid’s delusional, I keep telling her her parents are probably dead by now, or worse.”</p><p>“Answer the question.”</p><p>The unease returns to his face just as quickly as it disappeared. “Let’s just say they made permanent arrangements for her to stay here.” Plutt slowly starts moving the parts away from the counter, as if he’s afraid Din’s going to shoot him and take his spoils. “You’re a bounty hunter aren’t you? Well what do you know, someone’s looking for the girl after all.” </p><p>Din doesn’t answer, just turns away from the stand and looks off into the distance at the barren desert sands, at the dry winds that blow coarse dust into everything on this desolate, backwater planet. It’s no place for a child to grow up. </p><p>Defeated, he turns back to Plutt, “Tell me where she lives.”</p><p> </p><p>He finds Rey where Plutt said she’d be, in a downed AT-AT walker in the Goazon Badlands, a place far out into the desert away from the outpost and the rest of the scavengers and mercenaries. Calling it a wasteland would be generous, there’s nothing for miles in sight except dry sand and Imperial wreckage. </p><p>He approaches the AT-AT and gives it a little knock. After a few seconds, Rey pokes her head out of the auxiliary hatch, a blaster in her hand pointed at Din’s head. He raises his hands in what he hopes is a non-threatening way, “It’s me, I just want to talk to you.”</p><p>She lowers the blaster slowly, her eyes on the kid at his side in his bag who raises his outstretched hands at Rey and makes a happy noise. “How did you find me?” she asks suspiciously.</p><p>“Plutt told me you’d be here.”</p><p>She gives him a once over, looking from his helmet down to his boots, and a grin slowly stretches over her face. “I’ll bet you really scared him. He never gives information to strangers freely.” She steps back and beckons him in with her hand. </p><p>He ducks into the hatch and into the body of the ship. It’s roomier on the inside than he’d expected. He looks around at the hammock slung in the corner, the small mismatched collection of bowls and bottles that make up a tiny makeshift kitchen. There’s a fuel cell he thinks she must have salvaged from the AT-AT wired to a solar panel that looks like it was scavenged from a tie fighter.</p><p>“What’s this?” he asks, pointing to the fuel cell.</p><p>“I was trying to make a generator. The desert gets kind of cold at night.” She gives it a little kick, “But I haven’t gotten it to give me enough power yet. I was going to see if I could use the metal ball as a conductor,” she says with an apologetic look in his direction.</p><p>Din raises his eyebrows under the helmet as he looks from the makeshift generator to the welded hatches on the opposite side of the ship’s body. Smart kid, he thinks. </p><p>He plucks Grogu out of the bag and sets him on the floor where he immediately and gleefully becomes fixated on a pile of odds and ends scraps. Din lets his gaze move over the rest of the little home, the handmade doll resting in the hammock, the satchel of tools by the door, the netting hanging above them, and he wonders how long she’s been here to build all this. Then, as his eyes move to the back of the AT-AT he realizes, with a slightly wrenching feeling in his chest, that his question is answered. There’s a series of tally marks etched onto the far wall. Din doesn’t have to count them all to know those individual strokes add up to something that’s at least two years, maybe more. </p><p>“They’re coming back,” Rey says in a small voice behind him. He turns around to see her watching him look at the tally marks. “My family.”</p><p>Din lets out a quiet breath. He doesn’t even know where to begin. He doesn’t even really know what he’s doing or how he can help her. But there’s a hurt little girl standing in front of him, and though she’s as tough and as capable as any kid he’s ever met, Rey said it best herself. Sometimes the ones who are hardest on the outside are the softest on the inside.</p><p>He settles himself down onto the ground so that he’s more at her level, even if it means his knees are cramped uncomfortably in front of him. “What do you remember about your family?”</p><p>She’s very quiet for a minute before whispering, “I don’t think I remember anything.”</p><p>She rests her chin in her hands, her forehead creased thoughtfully, and there’s a sharp grief in her eyes that Din is all too well acquainted with. It’s not much to go on. It’s nothing to go on. But he’d been able to track down targets for the Guild before with nearly nothing. And he didn’t have Cara’s access to the New Republic databases before.</p><p>“You don’t happen to know your family name do you?” </p><p>“No,” she says in an even smaller voice, “it’s just Rey.” </p><p>Right. Okay. Well, he’s already searching the Galaxy for Grogu’s Jedi without anything to go on. What’s one more wild bantha chase. And yet, Din can’t help but wonder if this whole thing is even a good idea. The kid doesn’t remember anything about her family, and if he’s to take Plutt’s word as the truth, then her parents really did intend to leave her here. </p><p>“Rey,” he begins carefully, “I have a friend in the New Republic. We <em> might </em> be able to search through the birth records for the last few years and try to track down your family. But you need to be prepared to-” He cuts himself off. What’s he going to say to her? That there’s only a slim chance that a family from a backwater planet in the outer rim would even be on record? That even if they are, her best hope is that her parents are dead, not that they meant to leave her? </p><p>But he doesn’t have to finish his sentence because Rey stands up and looks at the tally marks on the wall behind him, resolve in her expression and all the tenacity in the Galaxy in her eyes. “I just-” she looks back at Din, her voice wavering slightly, “I just need to know.” </p><p>Din had spent a lifetime trying to outrun his past, and at least he’d known that his parents had died loving him. He understands then, that the kid’s not going to find closure, that she’s not going to be able to leave this barren planet behind until she knows the truth, or at least does everything in her power to find it, whether the truth is merciful or not.  </p><p>“I’ll do my best to find them,” he promises. </p><p>She stares at him and he can’t make out the expression on her face. “Why are you helping me?” she asks, and there’s no suspicion in her voice, only a bewildered sort of wonder. “I stole from your ship. You don’t even know me.”</p><p><em> This is the way, </em> Din thinks automatically, but he knows the response will mean nothing to the girl. And there’s a small part of him, growing louder the more that he talks to the kid, that wonders how much is really observance to the creed, and how much is because of something else, the same something else that had led him to return for Grogu. </p><p>He’s about to reply when Grogu, who’d found his way across the room to the kitchen, suddenly knocks over the pile of neatly stacked metal dishware. There’s a clanging racket as the bowls hit the floor of the AT-AT one by one. Grogu makes a little noise and gives the two of them a very caught, very guilty look, as his ears flatten ruefully. </p><p>Din picks him up, making sure none of the metal hit the kid on the head. “Hey, what did I tell you about behaving in other people’s homes?” he chastises. </p><p>“That’s okay,” Rey says, her lips twisting up into a little smile, “I never had people in here before. I don’t mind.” </p><p>Din’s eyes move back to the tally marks on the wall. He thought his life had been lonely before Grogu came along, but he’d never been as completely alone as Rey. He hadn’t always gotten along with the tribe but he’d had them. </p><p>For a time, he’d had them. Gone now, like everyone else. </p><p>He moves to stand up. “I have to get going. I’ll return to let you know, either way, about your family.” </p><p>A heartbroken look crosses her face as he stands, and for a second he instinctively almost moves to sit back down. Instead he stays standing and asks, “What is it?”</p><p>“Nothing.” </p><p>Din doesn’t reply. He’s found that if given enough time, people tend to provide more information. </p><p>Rey puts her chin back in her hands, and looks away from Din. After a minute she mutters, “There was nothing for a long time. And then you came and there was something. But now there’s going to be nothing again.”</p><p>A year ago Din might not have had a clue of what the kid was trying to say. But he looks down to Grogu in his arms, who perks up under Din’s gaze. Din knows what it was like to have nothing, and then for someone to come into his life and make it something. </p><p>He crouches down in front of Rey, trying to avoid knocking anything over in the tiny space. She lifts her head from her hands and looks at him, and her eyes are almost pleading. “You could always come with me to look into your family’s records if you wanted,” he says lightly, “get off this rock. ” </p><p>Her eyes widen and for a moment she looks like she’s ready to burst with joy, but it dims in a second, her face turning solemn again as she bows her head and looks away from Din. “I can’t. I need to stay here.”</p><p>Din looks at her unhappy expression, perplexed. She doesn’t want to stay, but she doesn’t want to leave either? “Do you like being a scavenger, Rey?” he asks, as gingerly as he’s capable of.</p><p>She frowns at him, her brows creased at the seeming change in subject. “As opposed to what?”</p><p>Good question. He eyes the pilot helmet with the Rebel Alliance insignia on it sitting on the table, remembers the little doll resting in her hammock that’s wearing a flight suit. “You could be my copilot.”</p><p>“Isn’t he your copilot?” She gives a little nod to Grogu in Din’s arms.</p><p>“He’s too young to be a copilot.”</p><p>“How old is he?”</p><p>“He’s fifty, look,” Din continues, as she makes a face at him, “I just wanted to give you the option, if you did want to leave Jakku, even for a while. I could bring you back whenever you wanted.”</p><p>Rey bites her lip, her leg bouncing restlessly in her chair. She opens her mouth to say something, then closes it again. Finally she gives Din a distressed look and says, “I do, more than anything. But what if my family comes back for me when I’m gone? I need to stay here just in case.”</p><p>Din almost laughs, it was an easier problem than he thought. “I can take care of that.” </p><p> </p><p>“Hey,” he says, stepping up to Plutt’s counter, who gives a little jump as he turns around and sees Din, “Rey is coming with me. If her family comes back, or if they send word, you contact the New Republic immediately and tell them to relay the message to Cara Dune, Marshal of Nevarro. She’ll know where to find me.”</p><p>Plutt sputters indignantly for a minute before slamming his hands down on the counter and bellowing, “Why would I do that, you’re taking away my best scavenger! I should have you killed where you stand.”</p><p>Din glances over across the outpost where the two hooded humanoid figures are standing watching the altercation, their hands twitching slightly towards the blaster pistols in their waist belt. He leans very slowly towards Plutt, who recoils reflexively away from him before seeming to get a hold on himself and straightening up, giving Din a very perturbed look. </p><p>“If I find out you heard from her family and didn’t make any attempts to contact me, your body will be the only thing being scavenged.”</p><p>He sees Plutt shudder before giving a small dismissive wave to the hooded figures who lower their hands away from their blasters in response. “Mandalorians,” he mutters. “Fine, fine take her. The girl’s more trouble than she’s worth anyway, always getting into fights with the teedos-”</p><p>Din can still hear Plutt muttering to himself as he walks off. </p><p>He meets Rey back at the Razor Crest. She’s holding a small satchel and has her stick slung over her arm. She seems to really like that thing, maybe he’ll show her how to use the Beskar staff, she’d probably like that.</p><p>Or maybe he shouldn’t be teaching kids how to use weapons. He’s really not sure.</p><p>“You ready to go?” he asks her, and she nods at him, bouncing excitedly on her feet. </p><p>They make their way up the boarding ramp and Rey takes a moment to look back out to the Outpost in the distance. “How did you get Plutt to do what you wanted?” she asks, a small frown on her face. </p><p>“I threatened to kill him. Or worse.”</p><p>Her face lights up with glee and Din shakes his head, “You’re a strange kid. You’re lucky I’m already used to those.” Grogu coos at him. </p><p>When they enter the main hold, Rey immediately runs over to the weapons locker. She stands in front of it for a second, then pulls something out of her bag and holds her hand up to the locker door. Din’s about to warn her to be careful, when he suddenly realizes she’s screwed the missing bolt back into place. He watches as she steps back to admire her work and then looks around the ship, beaming. “This is one of the biggest pieces of junk I’ve ever seen and I love it more than I’ve ever loved anything.”</p><p>He’s not sure whether that warrants a thanks or not so he doesn’t reply as he helps her up the ladder into the cockpit. When he climbs up himself, he sees Rey looking at the control panel with wide, excited eyes. “Where are we going?” she asks, spinning around to face him. “Did you know I’ve never been farther than the Carbon Ridge to the north of the Outpost?” </p><p>“Neverro.” Din sets Grogu down in one of the passenger seats and gestures for Rey to take the other one. She sits down, swinging her legs excitedly as Din takes his own seat. “If there’s information on your family, Cara Dune will be able to find it.” He starts up the engine and takes a look back at the two passenger seats. Rey is grinning from ear to ear as the Crest jolts upwards and Grogu, seeming to catch onto her excitement, begins babbling happily.</p><p>Din sighs and shakes his head, and if he’s hiding a smile under the helmet, well, no one needs to know.</p><p>When they’re far enough away from the planet that it’s a small speck against the dark sky, Rey jumps up and presses her face against the window. </p><p>“Hey,” Din says, looking at her out of the corner of his eye, “in your seat, the outer rim can get a little rough, and I don’t know what the jump to hyperspace is going to be like without a new motivator.”</p><p>She ignores him, and continues staring out the window. “It’s just like I imagined,” she whispers, her quiet voice full of awe.</p><p>He turns sideways in his chair and looks out the window she’s pressed up against, trying to see what she’s looking at. “What is?”</p><p>“The stars.” She grabs her bag from where it’s stowed under the passenger seat and pulls out the little pilot doll, holding it up to the window next to her.</p><p>In that moment Din knows he’s made the right choice. He watches the way she points out the different stars and planets to the doll, watches her set the doll down and reach over to pick up Grogu, rambling excitedly to him about everything she’s seeing as he makes cheerful, uncomprehending noises in response. He knows he never really stood a chance, that he was lost from the moment he learned her parents left her on this scrapheap of a planet.</p><p>He was only a Mandalorian after all.</p><p>She sets Grogu back down in his seat, making sure he’s all strapped in, before hopping back into her own, her eyes bright. Din laughs quietly to himself before turning back around and preparing to make the jump into hyperspace. He really hopes the Crest pulls through for him this time.</p><p>Suddenly the little metal ball flies out of the carrying bag on the floor and across Din’s face, before Grogu catches it in his hand with a satisfied babble. Din quickly turns around to look at Rey, who’s staring at Grogu with wide eyes, eyes that are getting wider by the second. Her mouth drops open a fraction of an inch and Din quickly says, “Don’t worry, that’s just a thing he does sometimes.” He reaches over and takes the ball from Grogu, he doesn’t want to frighten the girl when she’s just come to trust him. Grogu gives him a reproachful look, his face sinking in disappointment.</p><p>He moves to screw the ball back onto the handle when suddenly it flies out of his hand again. He turns around, about to chastise the kid, when he suddenly realizes the ball’s not in Grogu’s hand. </p><p>It’s in Rey’s.</p><p>He gapes at her and she giggles, passing the metal ball back over to Grogu who takes it with a gleeful coo. “Me too,” she says with a wide smile.</p><p>Oh no, Din thinks with an internal groan, <em> Oh no- </em></p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Alright Din time to go pick up Finn-</p><p>Thank you so much for reading! Don’t ask me how the timeline of all this works, I wrote this to take place mid-season two after the Ahsoka episode but before Din takes Grogu to Tython and I know that doesn’t fit with Rey’s age, but this is all self indulgent and we’re ignoring canon!! I haven't decided whether continue with this or just leave it here (it really depends on sporadic motivation to write haha) but I hope you liked it!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I can do it myself,” Rey says with all the patience in the Galaxy.</p>
<p>“No, no I-” Din stops and looks at the tangled mess of hair in his hands, frustrated. “No I got it.”</p>
<p>He bends over to peek at Rey’s face, at her quirked eyebrow that clearly signals she knows Din does not in fact have it. But she sits quietly anyway and lets him continue to run his fingers through the knots in her hair. He’s never really had to tie up anyone’s hair into buns before. It’s not something that he’d ever even considered, living with a tribe of Mandalorians who always kept their hair short and under the helmet. </p>
<p>He doesn’t think he’s ever even touched anyone’s hair before. Maybe his mother’s at one time but that’s not something he can remember. There’s something strangely familial and intimate about it. The same quiet comfort that comes with putting Grogu to bed every night in the hammock, or picking him up when he’s scared.</p>
<p>Something parental. </p>
<p>He shakes his head back and forth for a second trying to clear it. Rey turns and gives him a sympathetic look that’s so patronizing Din can’t help but grin quietly to himself as he ties the second of the three buns up as best he can, even though some stray hairs still stick out oddly. He’s not really sure why he’s insisting on stumbling through it himself instead of just letting Rey manage it. After all she’s right, she’s been doing it by herself fine all this time. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s because she’s had to do it by herself all this time. Maybe he knows what that’s like.</p>
<p>As he works, Rey and Grogu send the metal ball back and forth to each other through the air, in the Galaxy’s most bizarre game of catch. They’re both getting pretty good at it, Din thinks with a hint of pride. A hint of pride that doesn’t quite outweigh how strange he still finds the whole thing.</p>
<p>“There,” he says finally, as he gets the third bun tied up without twisting Rey’s hair into a knot like he did the first time. He’s lucky the kid is so forgiving. </p>
<p>She turns to look at him with a grin, stretching her legs out in an over-exaggerated way, a playful indication of how long they’ve been on the floor. Din gives a small huff and helps her up to her feet. She tosses the ball over to Grogu to hold onto, with her hand this time, not the-the <em> force </em> or whatever Ahsoka had called it. Din watches as Rey reaches a hand up to gingerly touch her hair, trying to get a feel for what it looks like. He steers her by the shoulders to one of the more reflective pieces of metal wall on the ship. </p>
<p>She looks at her reflection and raises her eyebrows.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” Din says immediately, “I’ll take it out, you do it yourself-”</p>
<p>“No,” she cuts him off, “no I like it a lot.”</p>
<p>He can’t tell whether she’s telling the truth or just humouring him. “Okay,” he replies, uncertain. She suddenly turns and wraps her small arms around his waist. Din freezes, his muscles instinctively going rigid at the unexpected hug, and he stares down at her in surprise. He pulls it together in a second and wraps an arm around her, completely baffled and at a loss for words. </p>
<p>She breaks away a moment later and skips over to Grogu, kneeling down beside him. “Show him,” she urges, her voice affectionate, “show him what I taught you.” </p>
<p>Grogu gives a little head tilt up to Din and makes a questioning noise. “Go on, buddy,” he nods at the kid in what he hopes is an encouraging way, despite his complete confusion at the situation. </p>
<p>Grogu coos happily and closes his eyes, seeming to focus. After a second, the ball starts spinning around him in a circle, as if caught in a spiraling gust of wind. A few seconds later, more small objects from around the ship, old parts and scraps, fly off the ground to join the metal ball in the swirl around the kid, almost like one of the sand tornadoes Din had seen on some desert planets. </p>
<p>He feels a jolt of fear deep in his stomach and is about to tell the kid to stop, but bites his tongue at the last minute. He doesn’t want to discourage or scare Grogu and it’s not like he’s doing anything dangerous. At least Din thinks it’s not dangerous.</p>
<p>The swirling objects gently plink to the floor one by one as Grogu opens his eyes, his face bright and expectant as he looks up at Din, who collects himself enough to give Grogu a weak smile before realizing that he wouldn’t even be able to see it. He must be really out of it, he thinks, giving a slow nod instead. “You...you taught him that?” he asks Rey, clearing his throat as his voice comes out fainter than he meant it to. </p>
<p>“Yeah!” Rey replies excitedly, clapping her hands together. After a second she turns sharply to Din and a hint of fear crosses her face, “Is that-is that okay?” </p>
<p>Din takes a deep breath and forces himself to sound semi enthusiastic, “It’s, no it’s great, really.” </p>
<p>Rey lowers her eyes as she moves to sit down next to Grogu, crossing her arms over her knees, “You’re upset, I can feel it, I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>She can feel it.</p>
<p>Ahsoka had said she could feel Grogu’s thoughts. He just hadn’t really thought about how unnerving the idea was to him. But he looks down to where both the kids are sitting on the floor looking dejected, and Din knows that his feelings aren’t important at the moment. </p>
<p>He crouches down in front of both of them until he’s sitting back down on the floor. He tries to shake some of the faintness out of his voice as he says, “I’m still just-new to all of this, that’s all.” Rey and Grogu both look up at him with identical pouts and he’d think it was funny if he wasn’t so worried. “I’m glad that Grogu has someone like him to learn with,” he continues, turning towards Rey, “and I’ve seen him do plenty of stra-uh interesting-things before. You just reminded me of how powerful he is that’s all.” A faint sense of surprise registers in Din’s chest at his own words. He hadn’t even realized that had been the source of his fear all along until he’d said it out loud. Grogu makes a small, sad noise and Din bends over to pick him up, holding him in his arms against his chest. He wonders if Grogu had been able to feel his emotions this whole time too, his stress, his pain. He was going to have to be more careful around the kid. </p>
<p>Rey watches him, her expression curious. “But you’re powerful too.”</p>
<p>Din gives a soft laugh, “Not as powerful as you two.” The strength of Rey’s power had come as something of a surprise to Din. Grogu had had years of training, Rey had been stranded on a backwater planet for most of her life. It doesn’t seem to add up in Din’s head but maybe he just doesn’t really understand how the whole force thing works. He looks down to Grogu in his arms who reaches a hand up to softly touch Din’s helmet. Din swallows, his throat tight before continuing, “That’s why I have to return him to his people.” </p>
<p>Rey rests her elbows on her knees and puts her hands in her chin, seeming to ponder his words. “Like how you’re bringing me back to my family?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Din replies quietly, “like that.” </p>
<p>She seems to want to ask something else but bites her lip and stops. After a moment she says, “I’m glad to have someone like me too. I always felt strange.”</p>
<p>Din looks down as Grogu stirs in his arms, holding the metal ball up and reaching his arms out to float it over to Rey. She catches it with a giggle and sends it back in Din’s direction. “Grogu had many teachers over the years,” he says, as he reaches a hand up to catch the ball. “Do you remember who taught you how to do that? Maybe one of your parents was a-a Jedi?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Rey replies, a crease forming between her brows, “I’ve always been able to do things like this. Like there’s always been something inside me but now it’s getting even stronger.” </p>
<p>Din tries very hard not to feel perturbed at that. He gently rolls the ball back across the floor to her before standing up, settling the kid back down on the floor next to Rey. “Well you have plenty of time to teach Grogu some more tricks. We still have a long way to go.” </p>
<p>A jump through hyperspace had turned into several days of slow realspace flying. The broken hyperdrive had turned out to be too much for the Crest on this one. Still, Din thinks as he looks down to where Grogu and Rey are playing, he could have worse company on the long journey to Nevarro. </p>
<p>He makes his way up into the cockpit to mess with the engine for a bit, trying to coax the Crest into speeding up, and tries not to think about how soon, once he finds his Jedi and Rey’s family, he won’t have anyone company at all. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Through the ship’s dusty windows, Din sees Cara give him a small wave from the ground as he lands. He shuts the engines down and turns around toward the passenger seat to look at Rey, whose legs are bouncing nervously. “Do you want to come with me or stay on the ship?” he asks, unsure whether she’d rather get the more likely than not bad news first or second hand. </p>
<p>“Come,” she replies immediately, slinging her stick a little more tightly over her shoulder. </p>
<p>“Alright.” He stands and lifts Grogu up into his arms, not giving him the option. He’s not likely to ever forget what almost happened to the kid the last time he was here. Grogu seems at ease though, as they make their way off the ship, straining his head to peek out the ship’s doors as Din opens them to get a better look at Cara. She’s standing with her hands on her hips and a grin on her face as Din steps off the boarding ramp.</p>
<p>“Back so soon,” she reaches out to stroke Grogu’s ear who coos softly at her in response. “You said on the transmission that you needed a favor?” </p>
<p>“Yes, I-” before he can explain, he sees Cara frown and look down to where Rey is shyly peeking out at her from behind his back. </p>
<p>“Hey there,” Cara says to Rey, and the question is evident in her words as she pointedly raises her eyebrows at Din.</p>
<p>“Hi,” Rey replies, and Din can feel her hand reach up nervously to grasp his. He takes it and gives her a small reassuring squeeze. Cara looks back and forth between them, her bewildered expression slowly turning to a sort of dawning realization.</p>
<p>Din rushes to explain before she can make any wrong assumptions, “I found her alone on Jakku and-don’t look at me like that, I’m just helping, I’m just-”</p>
<p>Before he can finish he sees Greef approach behind Cara, his hands outstretched in welcome, “Ah, I thought I heard that hunk of junk fly in. Mando! In town for business I suppose?” Before Din can respond or say hello, Greef holds up his hands in mock refusal, “Don’t ask me to help you blow up another Imperial base, I’m still recovering from the last one.” He reaches over and plucks Grogu out of Din’s arms, with a delighted laugh, “Of course I’d do it again for this little one, you really don’t bring him here often enough, he liked the school didn’t he? And-why are you smiling like that Cara?”</p>
<p>“He picked up another one on Jakku,” Cara says, her quiet voice just barely concealing the edge of laughter. </p>
<p>“Another what?” Greef asks, bewildered, looking back and forth from Din to Cara as if for an explanation. </p>
<p>Cara points behind Din’s legs where Rey has retreated to again, and this time she’s unable to suppress the laughter. “Another kid.” </p>
<p>Greef leans over to try to see behind Din, then looks back down to Grogu in his arms, a baffled expression on his face, “What the first one wasn’t enough trouble for you? Is this one green too?”</p>
<p>“I am <em>not</em>!” Rey shouts indignantly, finally stepping out from behind Din’s legs and promptly hitting Greef hard in the side with her stick. </p>
<p>“Ow!” he yelps, jumping backwards, as Cara’s barely stifled laughter grows louder.</p>
<p>Din grabs Rey by the neck of her shirt and gently but firmly pulls her back, “Hey, what did I say about hitting people with that thing?”</p>
<p>Rey sticks her lower lip out in a pout, “Not unless they threaten me first, in which case hit to kill.”</p>
<p>“That’s right.” Din looks back up to Greef who’s rubbing his arm. He’s about to apologize when he sees the same look wash over Greef’s face that Cara was wearing a few seconds ago and wonders if it would be too pathetic of him to ask Greef not to laugh. </p>
<p>He doesn’t, to Din’s surprise and relief. He just bends down so he can be more at Rey’s level and says, “Well, hello there! Jakku, you said? I bet you’ve never seen a lava field before. We can get a good look at one of those from the hill on the edge of the city.” He holds the hand that’s not carrying Grogu out to Rey.</p>
<p>Rey gives him a curious but dubious look and glances up at Din, her eyes questioning. He nods at her and she smiles as she takes Greef’s hand and lets him lead her back towards the main city. Din sighs very quietly as he watches Greef walk away with his two kids. He doesn’t even hear Cara move until she’s standing right next to him, shaking her head with a small smile on her face.</p>
<p>“Stop that,” he says wearily, and it comes out more as a plea than a command. </p>
<p>“You’re a good person,” is all Cara says as she moves to follow after Greef.</p>
<p>Din watches her walk away, surprised by her words, maybe even a little touched.</p>
<p>Just a little. Not enough to forgive her for laughing at him.<br/><br/></p>
<p>“Any luck?” Din asks, leaning over Cara’s desk to get a better look at the images on the screen. </p>
<p>“Give it a minute, these databases are huge.” She leans back in her chair and gives Din a small smirk, “What? You’re not in a rush to be rid of the kid yet are you?”</p>
<p>“I’m just worried that we might not have any good news for her.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Cara takes her feet off the table and turns in her chair to face Din, the grin fading from her face, “but it’s no good getting yourself worked up while we wait. Why don’t you sit?” She gestures towards the chair to Din’s right, and he waves her off, staying in his position hovering behind the computer. “Hey, sit,” she repeats, a bit more emphatically this time. Din sighs and forces himself to uncross his arms, which he didn’t even realize were stiff with tension, and take a seat in the chair. </p>
<p>Cara eyes him as he does, something almost vigilant in her expression as her gaze moves over his rigid posture. “Any luck with finding uh-Grogu’s, strange name by the way but it fits the kid, Grogu’s people?” she asks, her tone a little too casual.</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>She frowns and turns back towards the screen. They sit in silence for a few moments and Din stares at the back of Cara’s head where she’s focused intently on the task in front of her. He was used to shouldering his burdens alone. Mandalorians were there in a heartbeat when you needed aid in a battle, or defense against a foe, even going so far as to risk their own lives for yours. But you’d be hard pressed to find a Mandalorian who wanted to sit and discuss feelings and woes. But Cara seems willing enough, Din thinks, and it feels wrong somehow, to hold back his worries when the children’s lives are in play, cowardly almost. Not when Cara may be able to help.</p>
<p>Then again, as a Mandalorian, he thought he’d grown accustomed to knowing who to trust (and in most cases who not to trust), but it was different with the kids. If his own trust turned out to be misplaced, he could take care of himself, but it’s not a gamble he can take with the children. And Rey’s been safe up to this point, hidden away on a desert planet. If the Empire knew about her powers, would they come for her too?</p>
<p>But Din watches Cara fix her gaze on the screen, her expression as tenacious as ever, and he thinks about how she’d go to the end of the Galaxy and back for Grogu if Din asked her to, how she’d risked her life again and again to help him. He knows as solid as the beskar on his body that it’s safe to tell Cara. </p>
<p>“Rey’s like Grogu,” he says finally, and it comes out more blunt than he means it to.</p>
<p>Cara doesn’t even look at him as she continues to type information into the system. “I know, you sure do have a thing for lost children.” </p>
<p>“No,” Din replies emphatically, unceremoniously scooting his chair over so he’s right next to Cara, “I mean she can do the things he can do. She has his powers.”</p>
<p>Cara’s hands still over the keyboard. “Huh,” is all she quietly says, her forehead creasing ever so slightly. </p>
<p>Din can’t help but feel a bit disconcerted at her quiet acknowledgement. He’d expected a bigger reaction than that. “What?” he asks, slightly wary.</p>
<p>She blinks a couple times, seeming to be deep in thought. “You know, I’ve never been one to believe in any ancient religions,” she turns to face him, her expression more pensive than Din’s ever seen it, “but it is strange that you happened to pick up two kids like that.”</p>
<p>“Strange,” Din repeats faintly. </p>
<p>“Yeah.” She seems like she wants to say more but purses her lips and turns back towards the computer. Din watches her quietly, feeling a bit unnerved. He can’t shake the sense that maybe there was some truth to her words. It unsettles him, he’s only ever known one creed to be true in his life. He shakes his head as if trying to clear it and reaches his leg out to gently tap Cara’s foot with the toe of his boot. “Sounds like the New Republic got to you, Cara Dune.” </p>
<p>She huffs, “You wouldn’t believe the way some of the higher up officers talk. About the force and all that. I think it’s a load of bantha crap but-” She trails off, frowning at the screen. Din immediately moves to stand but she waves him off impatiently and starts typing. He reluctantly sits back down.</p>
<p>“So,” Cara continues, still typing, “what if you can’t find Rey’s family? Are you going to pass her off to the Jedi along with Grogu?” </p>
<p>He furrows his brow, under the helmet where she can’t see. He hadn’t thought about that. The idea seemed wrong, somehow. “It’s different though isn’t it?” he replies in a quiet voice. “Grogu was raised with the Jedi, I’m returning him to them. Rey has their powers but she never knew them.” Were the Jedi the same as Mandalorians, bound by a creed not by blood? Din wasn’t sure but if so, they had more in common with each other than he’d thought. “It’s her choice anyway,” he finishes uneasily. </p>
<p>Cara glances at him from the corner of her eye and he immediately knows she’s found something. “What?” he asks, leaning over to try to see what she’s looking at on the screen, “What is it?”</p>
<p>“Not much,” she replies quickly, “ I searched Rey’s name and approximate year of birth into the New Republic databases, which wasn’t a lot to go on, so I cross listed it with the word ‘Jakku’. Nothing came up,” she gives him a hesitant look before continuing, “but when you told me about her powers, I added the word ‘Jedi’ to the search. And there was one result in the database.” </p>
<p>Din stands so quickly the chair almost tips backwards. “What does it say?”</p>
<p>“The entry is mostly redacted. But it’s in the database under Empire Projects.” </p>
<p>Din freezes for a second, confused. A million questions seem to run through his head at once before he settles on, “Who redacted it? Why?”  </p>
<p>Cara shakes her head, “I don’t have the authority to access that information,” she pauses, hesitant again, “but…” </p>
<p>“But?”</p>
<p>“But, I copped a higher up officer’s passcode book during my swearing in ceremony as Marshall.” There’s a slight smirk on her face and Din gives her a pointed tilt of his helmet. “Hey, if they’re going to force me to do boring ceremonial stuff, I’m going to take advantage of the time.”</p>
<p>“I’m not complaining,” Din says, hiding a small smile. “Can you use it to see who made the entry?” </p>
<p>Cara turns back towards the computer, quickly keying something into the database. “All it gives me is the entrant’s New Republic identification number.” </p>
<p>Din grips the table, frustration rising, “That doesn’t help. Can you figure out who the number belongs to?” </p>
<p>“No,” Cara says, looking at him with renewed concern, “That’s on an even higher database. Only someone on Chandrila would have that kind of security clearance.”</p>
<p>Din hits the table, not hard, but hard enough for Cara to look at him with a hint of alarm. “You’re really worried about them aren’t you?” she asks, the almost gentle tone of her voice in stark contrast to Din’s agitation. </p>
<p>Din looks away, unable to meet Cara’s eye anymore. “I can’t find Rey’s family, I can’t find a Jedi for Grogu. My tribe was slaughtered after they revealed themselves to protect the child, and I can’t even complete the task they sacrificed themselves for.” He looks down, surprised and almost alarmed by the slight tremble in his hand. He clenches it into a fist, willing himself to regain control.</p>
<p>He hears Cara let out a slow breath before standing up to come beside him. She rests a hand on Din’s shoulder. “You lost your people and you’re trying to help those you do have left. I understand.” </p>
<p>Din can feel his frustration collapse at her words, in its place chagrin at his momentary lapse of composure. Cara would understand better than most. She suffered a far greater loss than he had. He feels her hand slip away from his shoulder as she settles back down into the chair. He turns to apologize but stops short in surprise when he sees her pull a holoprojector out from the top drawer. </p>
<p>“I have a friend stationed at the New Republic capital who I helped out of a scrape once during an attack on Mako-Ta. She might find out the information for us if I ask her. It’s not like we’re doing anything shady, we’re just trying to reunite a little girl with her family.” Cara gives Din a half smile, “Plus she likes kids. The two of you might get along,” Cara adds, the smile shifting into a hint of a smirk. </p>
<p>Din shakes his head at her but there’s a swell of gratitude in his heart. He doesn’t know what he’s done in his life to deserve the friends he has but he’s grateful for it all the same. </p>
<p>Cara purses her lips as she looks towards the doorway, out to the city. “I can’t go with you though, we’re still on the lookout for Imperials coming back to the base and I can’t leave the city undefended.” </p>
<p>“You’ve already done more than enough Cara, thank you.”</p>
<p>Cara opens her mouth to respond, when they’re suddenly interrupted by a flurry of footsteps behind them as Rey rushes into the room and slams straight into Din’s chair. “Did you know that lava explodes out of the ground and it’s like water but it’s hot, and it’s too bad we didn’t have any lava rivers on Jakku, we didn’t even have any water rivers, but I could have pushed Strunk right into it that time he stole all my portions, and he would have exploded along with all the lava,” Rey says in one breath, grabbing Din’s arm by the vambrace and shaking it excitedly. </p>
<p>Cara ducks her head to hide a smile, as Rey turns around to lift Grogu out of Greef’s arms as he steps into the room behind her. “You’ve got two fine kids, Mando,” Greef chuckles, slapping a hand on Din’s shoulder. “Sorry,” he continues in a lower voice, looking to the corner of the room where Rey is still chattering excitedly to Grogu who’s making incoherent happy noises back to her,  “I didn’t mean to get them both so riled up. You might have your hands full for the next few hours.” </p>
<p>“I appreciate you looking after them.”</p>
<p>“Did you find anything?” Greef asks, and the noise from the corner of the room abruptly halts. </p>
<p>Din decides to rip the bacta patch off quickly. “No,” he says, directing his words at Rey, “We haven’t found anything yet.”</p>
<p>The three of them turn towards Rey to gauge her reaction. Her lip trembles the slightest bit and Din immediately stands up, moving to console her even if he’s not sure how, when the tremble suddenly dissolves into a small scowl.</p>
<p>“Dank Ferrik,” she mutters and gives a little shrug of her shoulders, before picking up Grogu and heading back outside without another word. </p>
<p>Din can feel Cara’s gaze on him and he turns to see her raise her eyebrows at him.</p>
<p>“I didn’t teach her that,” he lies immediately. </p>
<p>“You’re lucky Grogu can’t talk yet,” Cara says with a mock reprimanding shake of her head. “Who knows what kind of language he’ll have picked up after all that time spent with you.” </p>
<p>Greef nods solemnly, though the corner of his mouth twitches up. “Mando is a man of few words but he makes sure to impress the important ones onto the children.” </p>
<p>“Are you two done?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, go check on your kids. I’ll send a transmission to my friend on Chandrila and tell her to expect you.” Din turns to follow Rey, when Cara suddenly calls from behind him, “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”</p>
<p>He turns back, about to assure Cara that it’s fine if her contact doesn’t come through, when he sees the meaningful look in her eyes. For a moment, he wonders if maybe that’s not what she meant at all. </p>
<p>It passes and she waves him off. “Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”</p>
<p>He thinks about asking if she’s got a spare motivator before he leaves but decides she’s already done enough for him.</p>
<p>It’s not because he wants more time with the kids. Definitely not</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Din sits restlessly in the pilot’s chair, unable to get his mind to quiet enough for him to fall asleep. Rey had been quiet as they’d left Nevarro. She’d just shrugged when Din asked if she was alright and he wasn’t sure what to do with that kind of a response so he’d just let her be. On top of that, Cara had been right about the strangeness of it all. Not just the fact that Rey has powers like Grogu, but that she was even in the databases, and that any information that might have been there had been concealed. He wonders briefly if maybe he’s stumbled into something more complex than just helping a lost kid find her family. He just wants to keep both the kids safe. </p>
<p>Unsettled, he stands up and makes his way down the ladder to the main hold as quietly as he can, taking a peek into the compartment where Rey is sleeping soundly, with Grogu above her in the hammock. He stops there for a moment, slightly mesmerized as he rests an arm on the wall and contemplates the two sleeping kids. They’re much better siblings than Din was with his brothers and sisters. Not that Din didn’t get along with his family but Mandalorians by nature tended to be less gentle in their dealings with each other. </p>
<p>Of course Grogu and Rey aren’t really siblings. And Din isn’t really their father. He’s a momentary guardian, a placeholder until he can reunite them with their own families. His throat grows tight for a moment, but he swallows it down and quietly steps away from the sleeping compartment. He was fine before they’d arrived. He would be fine after.</p>
<p>He reaches for a blaster from his weapons rack and sits back against the wall of the ship, mindlessly cleaning it. He wonders what he’ll do if he can’t find Rey’s parents. He can’t just leave her back on Jakku. Should he be taking her to a Jedi like Cara proposed? They could definitely protect her better than Din could, even if the Jedi weren’t originally her family. After all, the Mandalorians hadn’t originally been his family either. </p>
<p>His thoughts are interrupted by a rustling coming from the sleeping compartment. He stands up and walks over, peeking into the compartment to find Rey turning restlessly in her sleep, her face scrunched up in a way Din recognizes. He reaches over and puts a hand on her shoulder  “Hey,” he says as quietly as he’s capable of, trying to jostle her shoulders as lightly as possible. “Rey, wake up.”</p>
<p>Despite his attempt at gentleness, her eyes fly open, startled and wide, and as she tilts her head up to look at Din, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen an expression so scared and lost. He doesn’t know what to do for a second but as Rey’s breath catches and her face scrunches up again, he acts almost on instinct, climbing carefully into the compartment, ducking his head so he doesn’t jostle and wake Grogu in the hammock. Rey’s face goes fractionally slack with surprise and she scoots over to give Din room as he sits up against the back wall of the compartment next to her. For a few minutes the only sounds are Rey’s quiet sniffles and Grogu’s light breathing from the hammock above them. After a few minutes, Din reaches out his arm and sets it lightly around Rey’s shoulders.</p>
<p>He’s not sure how she’s going to respond to that, he knows that neither of them are very tactile people, but the tension seems to drain from her shoulders at the gesture and after a few moments, she swallows and catches her breath, opening her mouth to speak. “My family was never going to come back for me, were they?” she whispers.</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Din answers honestly. “We might find out more when we get to Chandrila.” </p>
<p>She closes her eyes and puts her chin on her knees. “I’ve spent years wondering why they left me alone on Jakku, trying to find the reason in it.”</p>
<p>Din thinks maybe he’s supposed to reassure her that there’s a reason for everything, that things always turn out for the best in the end. But he knows as well as anyone who grew up in a war that sometimes violence and loss are just senseless. And he knows Rey well enough to know that patronizing and coddling her feelings isn’t what she wants or needs. </p>
<p>“Sometimes things don’t happen for a reason,” Din says, looking down at Rey but remembering the loudness and heat of the explosion, the ruthlessness of the battle droid who pointed its blaster at an unarmed child. “Sometimes we lose things senselessly. Sometimes we find something new though.” Din’s gaze moves up to Grogu still asleep in the hammock, his face looking somehow even younger in the peace of sleep. “I found a new tribe after I lost my parents. The kid and I found each other.”  </p>
<p>Rey lifts her head from her knees, her eyes moving up to Grogu before settling on Din, all the anguish gone from her face, replaced by a quiet kind of pensive look. “I found you,” she says simply. </p>
<p>At once, Din is grateful the helmet hides his face, “Yeah,” he replies, clearing his throat to rid the roughness from his voice, “you did.”</p>
<p>He hadn’t ever thought his life was missing something. He might have been content to live out the rest of his years as a solitary bounty hunter. But now that he had it, he was starting to realize just how bleak his days had been before.</p>
<p>Rey’s quiet voice interrupts his thoughts. “We could be a family couldn’t we?” she asks, looking up at him with all the hope in the galaxy. “Me, you, and Grogu?”</p>
<p>Din’s reply that his task is to return Grogu to the Jedi, that if the Empire were to come for Rey too, he wouldn’t be able protect her, that he’s not-can’t be-a father that the children deserve, sticks to the back of his throat. He can’t bring himself to confess any of that, though he knows it will be all the harder when he has to say goodbye. Instead a memory he’d almost forgotten surfaces to his mind, and slips past his tongue before he can stop it. “Aliit ori'shya tal'din.” </p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“It’s Mando’a” Din clarifies quickly in response to Rey’s bewildered expression. “My tribe used to say it to me when I was small. It means ‘Family is more than blood’.”</p>
<p>Rey’s eyes widen and she opens her mouth to respond, when they’re interrupted by a coo from the hammock above them. Grogu reaches a tiny hand out to push the hammock away from his face so he can see Din and Rey clearly, blinking at them through sleepy eyes.</p>
<p>Din reaches up and plucks him from the hammock, cradling him against his side instead. Grogu looks up at Din then reaches a hand out to Rey. She takes it without hesitation and Din sees something silent pass between them. He has no idea what the kid is saying to her but Rey smiles and Grogu curls up against Din and closes his eyes. A few moments later, Rey does the same.</p>
<p>Din sits between the two kids, his throat tight and his heart heavy.  It seems life was a lot more simple when he was just a bounty hunter. He was less assured and less certain now than he’d ever been.</p>
<p>But somehow now, his life holds more.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much to everyone for reading, and for the wonderful kudos and comments!! There will be a third and final chapter to this (I'm a very slow writer but will hopefully post it soon!) I'm glad everyone is enjoying Din accidentally adopting force sensitive children as much as I am!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Din hates cities.</p><p>Chandrila is nothing like the Outer Rim. Din looks up at the big brass doors engraved with the New Republic insignia, at the sleek, fast moving speeders and shiny billboards that flash different Aurebesh phrases so fast Din can barely read any of them. He sighs as he steps through the doorway.</p><p>He can feel eyes on him as he stomps down the alabaster hallway, as the late afternoon sunlight pours in from the high windows, reflecting strangely off his beskar. He feels almost too aware of the way the loudness of his boots on the hard floor echoes off the walls, of the way the guards at the front desk eye him warily, their hands going not at all subtlety to the blaster at their sides. Din’s used to people being wary of him, there’s a good reason they are, and he’s come to rely on it. But in these polished white halls, and the smartly dressed New Republic officers moving at a fast pace all around him, their data pads tucked neatly under their arms, he can’t help but feel out of his element. </p><p>He steps up to the desk, not sure what to even ask the officer sitting there who’s eyeing him curiously. He wonders what Cara told them and whether her contact would be expecting him. He wonders if that New Republic arrest warrant for him is still active. “Uh,” he begins, unsure what to say under the officer’s watchful eye, when he suddenly feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns to find a green skinned Twi'lek looking up at him, her kind eyes seemingly out of place with the rest of her rugged exterior. </p><p>“Hera Syndulla,” she says, holding out a hand to him.</p><p>Din takes it gratefully and gives her a nod. “Cara Dune sent me. She said you could help me with finding some information?” </p><p>“Come with me.” </p><p>She turns and gestures for him to follow. They walk down a long hallway, one that’s much shabbier than the stuffy main hall. He eyes her goggles and flight suit as they make their way into a side room. So she had been a Rebel pilot. Din had heard them to be a bold sort of group, no wonder Cara got on with her. </p><p>He follows her to the middle of the room where several large datapads are hooked up to some sort of informational system. She keys something into one of the datapads then turns back towards him. “So what was it that you needed to find?”</p><p>“If I give you a New Republic identification number, can you tell me who it belongs to?”</p><p>“Maybe.” She folds her arms across her chest and gives Din a look that’s sharp but not unkind, “Dune said to trust you, and I trust her. But you better have a pretty good reason for me.”</p><p>Her expression is vigilant, acute, and despite how the rest of the New Republic officials may have cowed around him, Din knows that she won’t be so easily unsettled. He decides to go with the truth, explaining how he’d been traveling to find Grogu’s people when he’d come across Rey, and how Cara had led him to the set of redacted files. </p><p>As he speaks, her hands seem to slacken, her expression softening fractionally. “You came all this way to reunite a girl with her family?” There’s no incredulity in her voice, just a sort of understanding that Din doesn’t think he’s earned in the short amount of time they’ve spoken.</p><p>“I’m a Mandalorian,” he replies as if it’s an explanation she would understand. “This is The Way.” He doesn’t know how else to put it. He’d sworn a creed. <em> Until it is of age or reunited with its own kind, you are as its father.  </em></p><p>Of course there was that curious and newfound part of him that was somehow more than the creed. Something he doesn’t yet recognize or understand. A need to help Rey and Grogu that was independent of the loyalty he’d sworn.</p><p>He shakes it off, trying to figure out how else to explain to the pilot just how desperately he needs this information, when she gives him a small smile and a nod, seeming to understand something that maybe he himself doesn’t. She turns back towards the datapads. “Give me the number.”</p><p>He does, and there’s a short silence as she enters information into the database that Din finds agonizing. After a minute she raises her brows and turns back towards him. He wants to ask her what she’s found but his words stick to the back of his throat. Her expression seems strange somehow but he can’t make out whether it’s a good or bad kind of strange.</p><p>“The name of the person who entered then redacted the information is Luke Skywalker.” She furrows her brow for a second, and shakes her head almost in disbelief. “He was a key component of the Rebel success.”</p><p>Din doesn’t understand her incredulity. Of course this Skywalker had been working with the Rebellion, he had access to high security Rebel databases. “Key component how?”</p><p>“He overthrew the Emperor.” </p><p>Oh. </p><p>Din’s in way over his head. </p><p>“How can I find him?” he asks, his voice coming out weaker than he intends it. </p><p>Hera gives him a small smile, and to Din’s surprise, there’s something profoundly sad behind it. “Tell me if you figure it out. I’m looking for a Jedi myself.” </p><p>“This Luke Skywalker, he’s a Jedi?”</p><p>She nods at him, before turning back to the datapads and shutting the system down. </p><p>Din stands there trying to process her words for a few moments. A Jedi called Skywalker knows something about Rey, something to do with a secret Empire project, something that was nefarious enough to make confidential. He’s so unnerved that he doesn’t even register the other part of Hera’s words until she turns back towards him with that same sad look in her eyes.  “Do you…” Din trails off before clearing his throat and starting again, “Do you also have a kid you’re trying to reunite with a Jedi?”</p><p>She smiles again at him and this time it’s filled with both grief and a quiet understanding, “The Jedi I’m looking for...he is my kid.”</p><p>The galaxy is much wider and stranger than Din had thought possible. “I hope you find him.”</p><p>“Me too.”</p><p>He turns to leave when he suddenly remembers his other task, the one he’d set off to do before he had found Rey and changed his course to look for her family. “There’s a stone,” he says as he turns back around, “a-a seeing stone. On a planet called Tython. A Jedi called Ahsoka Tano told me about it, she said it was a way to reach out to other Jedi. Maybe you can find your kid there.”</p><p>Hera folds her arms against her chest and Din understands the gesture as hopelessness, “Yes, Ahsoka tried to use the stone to find Ezra. It didn’t work then, but I hope it’ll help you find Skywalker.”</p><p>Din is so caught up in his sympathy for Hera and her lost son that he doesn’t even realize how completely blind he’s been until it hits him suddenly and he feels like an idiot for not making the connection earlier. He’d been looking at his two missions as separate up until this point. A Jedi for Grogu, family for Rey. He’d never thought maybe the two were the same, until Hera had said it. He feels like he’s been struck in the chest and it takes a second for him to pull it together. “Thank you,” he says to Hera, when he can finally speak, and she just nods at him, not even truly understanding how much she’s just helped him. </p><p>“Mando,” she calls after him, as he’s leaving the room. “Keep your kids close. The time you have with them is more precious than you realize.”</p><p>He stops in surprise. “They’re not…” he trails off, unable to finish the sentence.</p><p>She smiles again and this time there’s something lighter in her eyes. “Trust me, I know a father when I see one. Family isn’t always blood.” </p><p>“I know,” Din replies, and he does.</p><p>That thing he hadn’t understood before, he thinks maybe he gets it now. There was the Creed which told him to help the children even at the cost of his own life. And then there was love, which told him to do the same even at the cost of his own heart. </p><p> </p><p>It’s strange that both his paths led him here, to Tython. A Jedi for Grogu, an answer for Rey.</p><p>Maybe the end of it all for Din.  </p><p>He lands on the top of the mountain with a gentle thud, setting Rey on her feet and shifting Grogu to his arms. They both look up at him with wide smiles and windswept hair. He wonders if the kids might have been trained in the Rising Phoenix, if he had found them in different circumstances, if they had been adopted into the tribe.</p><p>He looks around towards the stone ruins. Din’s not really sure how this pile of old rocks is going to contact a Jedi across the expanse of space, but he’s seen stranger things recently. “What do you think buddy?” he asks Grogu. “Does this feel Jedi to you?” </p><p>“I think you ought to place him on that big stone in the center,” Rey says from behind him, pointing to a wide flat rock in the middle of the ruins. </p><p>“Did he tell you that?” Din replies, taking Rey’s hand as she stretches it out to him.</p><p>“No,” she says quietly as she leads him to the stone, “but it feels right.”</p><p>Din looks down at the stone in front of them. It doesn’t feel like much to him, but he sets Grogu down on top of it anyway. “And now he’s supposed to...see something?” Din asks Rey uncertainly as Grogu reaches up to swat playfully at the blue butterflies above his head. </p><p>He only gets a silence in response. He looks away from Grogu and down to Rey who has a funny look on her face. “I think I’m supposed to be on the stone with him.” </p><p>A strange chill runs through Din’s chest. He hadn’t told Rey what he had discovered on Chandrila, only that they were stopping here for Grogu. Yet she had known somehow, that she had something to discover at this place too. Well, he was starting to understand why Jedi and Mandalorians had been ancient enemies. The strangeness of it all is almost too much for him. “Go on then,” he says to her, reaching out his hand to help her onto the rock.</p><p>As soon as Rey sits down beside Grogu, a rush of energy seems to erupt out of the stone itself, in surges of pure blue and white light, engulfing the children inside. Din freezes, almost paralyzed by shock, by fear. But both Rey and Grogu have their eyes closed, a peaceful expression on their face, and Din forces himself to stay where he is and let it happen. He watches, a cold shiver running up his spine at the energy he can feel emanating around them, at the faintly glowing blue light encircling the stone. He hopes Ahsoka Tano knew what she was talking about. </p><p>He begins to wonder how long this is supposed to take, when he should start becoming worried, when the light from the sun above his head is suddenly blackened as a shadow moves across his body, then the whole mountain. He looks up, and with a jolt of terror that strikes him to his very core, a terror that he didn’t even know he was capable of feeling before the children came along, he sees Gideon’s light cruiser hovering above them. </p><p>“Okay, time to go.” He steels himself then pushes towards the surge of light in front of him. He’s immediately blasted back by a jolt of energy that throws him onto his back, and into the rocks and dust of the mountaintop. Ignoring the throbbing in his skull, he presses forward again, coming within arms reach of Rey and Grogu, before the energy throws him back with a force greater than he can comprehend. He pushes himself to his arms and looks at them, still at peace, still unmoving, and wonders if they can even hear him. He shakes his head, trying to clear the ringing in his ears, and moves towards the energy barrier for a third time, as a tie fighter emerges from the cruiser, surrounded by black figures that Din doesn’t recognize.</p><p>He’s blasted back again the same time the tie fighter lands, along with what Din thinks are darkly colored stormtroopers. He moves to shield the children, though he doesn’t know how he can, as Gideon and the troopers approach. </p><p>“Do you like my Darktroopers, Din Djarin?” Moff Gideon calls to him, his lip curling up into a smirk as he walks towards them. “It’s no use fighting, no Mandalorian weapon of yours could begin to equal their power.” </p><p>Din looks at the mechanical way the troopers move, the red glowing behind their eyes and knows that Gideon isn’t bluffing, these aren’t ordinary stormtroopers. A lifetime ago he might have welcomed the fight. Instead he makes sure the weight of the jetpack is secure on his back. He just has to keep Gideon talking until the shield around the kids goes down. He’s closer, he’ll get to them first. Though he isn’t sure he’ll be able to out-fly these Darktroopers, better to fight them in the air than on the ground. </p><p>“You’re too late,” Din calls back to him, “A Jedi will be taking the child before you can get to him.”</p><p>Gideon laughs and it’s soft and dangerous, “The Jedi were slaughtered as your people were. Soon the Mandalorians will fade into myth with them. That child is all that remains of a time long forgotten.” There’s a hungry gleam in his eye as he looks past Din to the children. “But what’s this? Have you located another child for me?” </p><p>There’s a rage like flames licking Din from the inside out, distracting him enough that he barely notices the X-wing that appears in the sky, behind Gideon’s line of sight. “You’re not taking either of them.” And he raises his blaster pistol towards Gideon’s head.</p><p>Gideon doesn’t so much as blink, his expression calm, impassive. “You seem to be rather good at finding these children. You should have taken the beskar offered to you and ran, we might have had quite a partnership in another time. Instead you’ll die here.” Gideon raises a hand to the troopers and they move almost on his command.</p><p>Din stands before the children, ready to fight to his last breath. He fires at the trooper closest to him, and it blasts off the armor without leaving a scratch. He drops the pistol and sets off the whistling birds instead. The birds connect with the trooper’s neck and it stops for the briefest second, before straightening up and moving towards Din once again. Gideon stands there, his arms behind his back, his eyes flashing with anticipation. He doesn’t even bother sending the other troopers in Din’s direction. One would be enough apparently. </p><p>The Darktrooper grabs Din by the neck and lifts him off his feet before throwing him to the ground. Din slams to the floor, the wind knocked from his lungs, and the trooper crushes a mechanical foot against his chest, pressing the beskar into his ribs. He swings an arm up, trying to get the trooper to give enough way for him to slip out from under the crushing weight. He’s dizzy and breathless, a sharp pain emanating from his spine and coursing through his body. But the children are still there behind him, and Din won’t be stopped by a lifeless piece of metal. </p><p>His free arm grabs the beskar staff attached to his side, his last defense. As the trooper leans forward, its hand curling into a fist and aiming for his helmet, Din thrusts the staff upwards into its neck, aiming at that fissure of wires and metal.</p><p>Sparks erupt from the Darktrooper’s neck as the beskar strikes the metal. It twitches for a second, black smoke emanating from the broken joints, before it’s head falls sideways, hanging off its body grotesquely attached by the loose wires. The Darktrooper falls to the ground, hitting the stone beside Din.</p><p>Gideon’s smirk drops in surprise, then twists back up in rage. He motions curtly for the rest of the troopers to attack. Din pushes himself to his feet, ignoring the sharp pain in his bones, and holds the staff at the ready as the energy shield falls behind him. The children fall peacefully in sleep down on the stone, exhausted by their efforts. </p><p>As the hum of the shield fades, it’s replaced by a new, semi-familiar humming. He sees a greenish glow out of the corner of his eye before the troopers descend on him. With one hand he raises his staff, with the other he reaches for the children. But he’s outnumbered and outmatched. And there’s a keen, absolute hopelessness crushing his chest, making it hard to breathe. He won’t be able to save them in time. </p><p>Then, inconceivably, <em> inexplicably</em>, the trooper directly in front of him suddenly seems to crumble in on itself, as something is crushing it from the inside out. It falls, it’s arms and legs mangled and useless, and Din steps back, stunned. </p><p>A hooded figure steps in front of him, a gloved hand extended towards the Darktroopers, the green laser sword tearing through them in a way that’s almost too graceful, too powerful. </p><p>Moff Gideon comes back to his senses a second before Din, his eyes widening in terror, before he turns and runs in the direction of his tie fighter, his black cape billowing in the wind behind him.</p><p>A second later Din finds his footing and ignites his jetpack, setting off after Gideon. Friend or foe, the hooded figure is taking down the Darktroopers. And he won’t let Gideon remain a threat to his kids. He shoots his blaster pistol at Gideon’s back as he flies towards the tie. Gideon turns back to Din, a hand reaching up to clutch his seared shoulder, the other hand igniting the Darksaber at his waistbelt. He deflects Din’s next two shots and Din lands, pulling out the Beskar staff as he does. He’ll have to go old fashioned on this one.</p><p>Gideon watches him, his features twisted by rage. “I’ll kill you first and then come back for the children,” he jeers as he swings the Darksaber at Din. Din brings the staff up to combat the blow. The saber falls down on the staff with a hiss of metal. It’s hot and heavy and searing against the beskar. But it doesn’t break through. And there is no higher master of combat than a Mandalorian whose children are threatened. </p><p>He brings the staff up to strike at Gideon’s head, at his chest, at his center, again and again unrelenting. Gideon only just meets Din’s blows with the saber, his twisted expression falling into panic. He lets out an enraged yell and strikes at Din, but his footing is uneven from countering Din’s attack. Din drops to the ground and swipes Gideon’s legs out from under him. </p><p>Gideon falls on his back, his head hitting the rocks hard as Din stands, picking up the fallen Darksaber as he does and holding it to Gideon’s throat. He’s only just barely aware of the hooded figure standing impassively behind him as Gideon gives him a bitter, rasping laugh. “What are you waiting for? Do it!”</p><p>Din doesn’t doubt that the Galaxy would be a much better off place without Moff Gideon, he doesn’t doubt that the man deserves to die. And he’s never been anything more than ambivalent about killing when necessary. So this newfound, raw, need to end the life of the man in front of him catches him off guard. </p><p>And he steps back and de-ignites the saber. Gideon only has a half second to look surprised before Din strikes him in the head with his beskar staff, hitting him hard enough to knock him out without killing him. </p><p>He’s a Mandalorian and there’s no honor in killing a man already defeated, for personal satisfaction</p><p>He’s a father, and he’s going to be one that’s worthy of the two children he loves. </p><p>He reaches at his waistbelt for his comlink. “Cara? I’ve got him. I’ve got Moff Gideon.”</p><p>Cara’s voice comes through immediately, as Din knew she would. “The New Republic and I are on our way. We’ll see you in less than a hyperspace jump.”</p><p>Finally, Din turns around and looks at the figure behind him. The figure lowers his hood and Din is taken aback for a second. The raw, terrifying power he’d seen a few moments ago resembles nothing of the gentle, kindly face of the man before him. Din pulls himself together, looking past the man’s shoulder to see the children still sleeping peacefully on the rock, unaware of the dangers that had just transpired. </p><p>“Were you behind me that whole time?” he asks the man.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>For all that this man has just saved all their lives, Din can’t help but feel the slightest bit annoyed. “You could have stopped Gideon easily. Why didn’t you help me fight him?”</p><p>The man studies Din for a second, and Din feels strangely as though the man is looking into him rather than at him. He feels momentarily vulnerable, as if he’s taken off his beskar. A second later the man gives Din a slight incline of the head, almost an apology, and gestures to the weapon in Din’s hand. “That’s an ancient and powerful lightsaber you have there.”</p><p>“I think these things are called darksabers actually.” Din says gesturing to the laser sword in his hand and the one in a vivid green shade that the man holds.</p><p>The man gives him a small, gentle smile. “My name is Luke Skywalker,” he says, bowing his head at Din again, this time in greeting, “I believe these children called me here.”</p><p>Luke Skywalker.</p><p>Din found him after all. He can’t speak for a moment, too stunned by the unfolding of events in front of him. It’s all happening too fast for him to begin to understand, the Jedi here for Grogu, the Jedi here to answer the mystery of Rey. He’s suddenly seized with an all consuming sense of grief for the children he hasn’t yet given up. </p><p>A crease forms between Luke’s brows that softens into a gentle understanding, and it brings Din’s mission back to the forefront of his mind for a moment. “I know you’ve come for Grogu,” he says quickly, “but I need something else first, answers I promised Rey.” </p><p>Unexpectedly, inexplicably, there’s something like a shadow that falls over Luke’s face at the mention of Rey’s name. A crushing sort of grief and despair that Din recognizes as his own from moments ago but compounded tenfold. “What did you just say?” Luke asks, and his voice is faint, barely there. He starts to turn back to the children but seems to be unable to and keeps his eyes steady on Din instead. </p><p>Din opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again, completely at a loss. He’d come all this way to find a Jedi, to find Luke Skywalker specifically. He’d fought almost to the edge of life, captured Moff Gideon, and watched the Jedi take out an army of mechanical stormtroopers like they were dust in the wind, a power beyond the scope of anything he’d ever imagined could exist. He’d faced the edges of his own despair, preparing to hand Grogu over to this Jedi, who stood before him great and powerful, and with a wisdom beyond what his years should have given him. And with one word, he’s watching that terrifying but kind Jedi crumble before his eyes. </p><p>He can’t make sense of it. He’d only mentioned Rey’s name. </p><p>At Din’s silence, Luke turns and strides to the stone where the two children are still sleeping peacefully. He bends down before them on one knee, and there’s something desperate and tortured on his face, but at the very edge of it all something else. Something akin to hope.</p><p>Something occurs to Din just then. He’d understood the grief in Luke's eyes more clearly than he should have, because he’d known it.</p><p>It was the grief of a father.</p><p>“Are you….are you Rey’s father?” Din asks the Jedi, and he thinks he’s never felt so unsure in his life. </p><p>Luke tears his gaze away from the children and looks up at Din, his expression turning haunted. “No,” he says softly, and he lowers his eyes in what Din recognizes as shame.</p><p>Din waits, the only sounds around them the quiet breathing of the children and the grass moving softly in the wind. He gives Luke a moment as he turns to make sure Gideon is still unconscious and cuffed behind him. He must have hit him harder than he thought. He can’t bring himself to feel badly about it. </p><p>When he looks back, Luke seems to have found some footing, some composure. Still Din waits. He’s no Jedi, but he senses there’s more to be said. And after a moment, Luke does begin to speak. “Rey doesn’t have biological parents. She was born of an Empire cloning project, early tests that eventually became the experiment you rescued Grogu from.” Luke pauses and Din gives a small nod of acknowledgment to show he’s following. He doesn’t ask how Luke knows this about Grogu, knows this about him. He’s learned that there’s some parts of being a Jedi, of the force itself, that he’ll never quite understand. Luke continues, “The goal of the project was the cloning of the Emperor himself, the Sith have always pursued immortality, and he’d come closer than any before him. Shortly after the Empire’s downfall, when the fragments of what became the New Republic were eliminating remaining Empire bases, we found her. The only surviving child of the experiments.”</p><p>Din feels an uncharacteristic lightheadedness at Luke’s explanation and he reaches an arm out to grip the rock beside him. He doesn’t understand much of what the Jedi is saying, but he’s followed enough to understand the main point of the story. “Rey is….a sort of clone of the Emperor?” He asks, and his voice isn’t as faint as he thought it would be. He finds it makes no difference to him, what Rey had been born of. He’d been something else too before he’d chosen to become a Mandalorian. </p><p>Luke stands up then, and looks at Din, and if Din hadn’t been certain as the ground under his feet that his helmet remained steadfast on his head, he might have thought Luke was looking right into his eyes, maybe even past that. When Luke answers him, his voice comes out fainter than Din’s had been, “Rey is not entirely a clone of the Emperor. Prior clones hadn’t been stable enough to survive on their own. The Emperor’s life essence was too corrupted, too changed by the dark, to support a new life. So they added someone else’s.” And Luke reaches down and removes the black glove from his right hand. </p><p>Din stares at the mechanical arm, uncomprehending, and Luke gives him a gentle smile that doesn’t quite mask the pain in his eyes. “In my fight against the Empire, I lost a hand. They took some of my life essence to create Rey.” </p><p>“Then…” Din swallows, trying to find his voice, “then you <em> are </em> her father, in a way?”</p><p>The shame falls back over Luke’s face at Din’s words. “Would you call the Emperor her father as well? I’ve done nothing in my life to deserve that title.” And Luke sits down on the edge of the stone, as if he no longer has the strength to stand. Din feels a strange urge to reach a hand out to comfort the man but he doesn’t. “What happened after you found her?” he asks instead. </p><p>The shadow seems to pass out of Luke’s eyes as he speaks, “Those were some of the happiest moments of my life. I had never thought myself a father, but for some time I did raise Rey, while the New Republic tried to reach a decision on what to do with her.” He pauses and it seems the shadow returns, “Even in childhood the strength of her powers were apparent. And the New Republic feared what they saw as a weapon created by the Empire. And when they asked me to allow Rey to be adopted into a new family, a normal family that had no connection to the Jedi or the force, this is where I failed her. Fearing some darkness in myself, fearing passing that onto an innocent child, in a moment of self-doubt I said yes.” </p><p>And Din feels the blood drain from his face at Luke’s explanation. Not because he would judge the Jedi’s actions, but because he understands those actions all too well. </p><p>“I wiped any mention of Rey from the New Republic databases, “ Luke continues, “hoping it might keep her safer, and turned my back. It wasn’t until recently that I learned that she was lost, abandoned by the parents that had promised to protect her. They had found her force powers to be too much. They gave into their fear in the end….as I had done.” And Luke sits back down on the stone, his hand covering his eyes.</p><p>“It’s not the same,” Din finds himself saying at the Jedi’s quiet despair, “they abandoned her because they feared her. You thought you were doing the right thing by letting her go.”</p><p>“My actions were guided by fear all the same,” Luke replies, lowering his hand from his face and looking down at Rey. “The dark side is the strongest when we give into our fears.”</p><p>Din doesn’t have a response to that. Is that what he’s doing? Giving Grogu up because he fears Grogu deserves better than him? “I handed Grogu over to the Empire,” Din tells the Jedi, and it feels like a confession, “I made a mistake far greater than yours.” </p><p>“You went back for him. You made it right in the end.”</p><p>“You have a chance to do that now.”</p><p>Luke’s eyes widen and just then the children stir. Din immediately rushes over to them. He picks Grogu up who gives him a sleepy blink but otherwise looks unharmed, and reaches for Rey but stops when he sees her sitting up and staring at Luke. </p><p>Luke crouches down beside her, so slowly, and says in a quiet voice, “I’m sure you won’t remember me, you were so small then. But I’m sorry Rey, for ever leaving you alone.” </p><p>Rey tilts her head to the side, a faint crease appearing between her brows. Then she suddenly reaches out and puts her hand softly on Luke’s cheek.</p><p>“I remember you,” she says softly. “In the force, you’re familiar.” </p><p>And without another word she wraps her arms around his neck in an embrace.</p><p>Din doesn’t need Jedi mind reading powers to understand the expression on Luke’s face, the gratitude, the hope, the love. He’d experienced that himself a lot recently.  </p><p>“I thought I was waiting for someone else,” Rey whispers, her arms still around the Jedi, “but I think it was you who I always knew I‘d find again.” </p><p>Din watches them and marvels at how strangely and improbably it had all worked out. Maybe Cara was right after all about the force thing. He’d found a Jedi for Grogu, and not just an answer for Rey, but a family for her as well. There was no happier ending to the story.</p><p>So why does Din feel so torn apart inside. </p><p>Luke stands up, still holding Rey’s hand. “I owe you my thanks,” he says.</p><p>“I didn’t do much,” Din says, looking down at Grogu who’s making soft sounds at him. “I guess it all worked out itself in the end. With the force and all that.”</p><p>Luke smiles gently, “The force is an energy field created by life, it doesn’t act alone. It was your act of selfless love, both for Rey and Grogu, seeing a child that needed your help and helping where others did not, that brought you here.” </p><p>Din finds he can’t respond. There’s a tightness in the back of his throat, a stinging in the back of his eyes. His hand trembles ever so slightly where he’s gripping Grogu. “I guess…” he says, clearing his throat when his voice shakes, “I guess I should give you Grogu now then. He and Rey both deserve to be with their people.” </p><p>Before Luke can respond, Grogu makes a noise and reaches a hand up to Din. “What is it buddy?” Din murmurs, blinking a few times to clear his blurry vision under the helmet.</p><p>“He says you're our father,” Rey says quietly from where she stands next to Luke. “He says we won’t leave you.” She tightens her grip on Luke’s hand and looks up at him, “I’ve just found you again. But I’ve found something new too.” She looks at Din and her eyes are as fierce and blazing as he’s ever seen them, “<em>Aliit ori'shya tal'din.</em>” </p><p>Din stares at her in surprise, his heart swelling with more love and pride than he’d known he was capable of feeling. </p><p>“Family is more than blood,” Luke repeats softly. “Yes, sometimes family is unconventional. I was raised by my aunt and uncle. My sister was adopted and loved by her family. Sometimes family is more than just the people who you’re born to. A belief that I think, Mandalorians and Jedi share.” Luke seems to sense Din’s surprise for a moment and gives him a small smile, “Yes fear may be what lets the dark in. And the Jedi may be right that detachment keeps this dark at bay. But in my life, I’ve found that it’s selfless love that lets in the light.” He glances down at Rey, a sorrowful look in his eyes, “I know what it’s like to be parted with my child. And I wish I’d had more time with my father.” He looks back to Din and his eyes are firm, his smile kind. “If we leave here, we leave together.” </p><p>Both Grogu and Rey look up to Din at the same time, an equally pleading look on their faces. Din can’t help but laugh, feeling lightheaded in relief, in joy. In love. He kneels down in front of Rey so that he and Grogu are on her level and says to Luke, “Wherever I go, they go.” </p><p>Rey throws her arms around Din as Grogu coos with delight. Din feels a hand come to rest on his shoulder and looks up to see Luke smiling at him with all the joy in the Galaxy. </p><p>“Okay then,” Din says to all of them, “we’re a clan of four.” </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
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  <b>Epilogue:</b>
</p><p>Cara (after arriving on Tython): well you’ll be happy to know that Moff Gideon will be locked up for a long-holy shit is that the dude who overthrew the emperor???</p><p>Din: yeah his name’s Luke and he’s my new boyfriend</p><p> <i>Later:</i></p><p>Boba Fett (upon running into Luke and Din): hey man, I’ve been looking for you everywhere! so I just want my armor back-wait hang on do I know you?</p><p>Luke *sweating*: no I don’t think we’ve met.</p><p>It’s Rey Djarin-Skywalker with a steel chair!!! me finishing this fic: here’s how Rey Nobody/Rey Skywalker/Rey Djarin/Rey Palpatine can still win<br/>In all seriousness thank you so much to everyone who read, left kudos, and/or left comments, it meant the world to me!! I hope you enjoyed the fic and the ending! If you’d like to come cry with me about star wars more, I’m on tumblr <a href="https://starryreys.tumblr.com">@starryreys!</a></p>
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